Word documents corrupted after virus infection.

[EAVINO37]

Hi,
got a new customers pc here. she had a virus last week (one of the ucash ones) . she then "spent all day trying to fix it following instructions on various forums"

she has no idea what she actually did. the virus isn't there anymore, but now nearly nothing works on the pc. sys restore doesn't work and every single document is giving me the error "the open office xml file xxxx.docx cannot be opened because there are problems with its contents" details: "the file is corrupt and cannot be opened".

the files don't open on my work pc either.

so far i have got the data off her disk and tried:
1) open and repair in word
2) renaming as a .zip and then trying to extract it (doesn't work, zip file says it is empty) to get at the xml
3) running checkdisk on the disk and then trying to open on both her and my pc
4) using open office to open the files

all have failed. i have run out of ideas.

of course, she doesn't have a backup (aaargh!).

so - i would like to know if there is any software i can buy that will bulk sort out all her docs, or if anybody has an idea as to how to get these to open.

thanks for your help!

 

[pete.i]

I think those files may be toast. I don't what your customer did to remove that ucash virus but I have removed it loads of times over the years using Malwarebytes and not had a problem. Having said that there are programs out there both free and paid for that MIGHT recover some or all those files. Recuva is one that comes to mind but Google is your friend in this. Bottom line is if your customer has not backed up the files then I wouldn't waste too much time trying to get them back. Hard hearted I know but I bet your customer backs their personal files up in future.

 

[JosephBooker]

Here's something to look at:
https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/172/t/269739

 

[pete.i]

I cannot for the life of me understand why you would think that that link would help to recover lost files Mr Booker. But what do I know.

 

[EAVINO37]

Thank you guys for your feedback and help. Sorry, that long time did not respond. This is because the issue was solved and I forgot to tell.) Thank you!